1. Field
This invention generally relates to high data rate networking and storage networking. More particularly, this invention relates to a system and methods for hardware acceleration of a high data rate networking or storage networking device or system.
2. Description of Related Art
Recently, systems and software have been developed for networking applications wherein it is necessary or desirable to execute communications protocols at very high data rates. For example, conventional networked storage systems, including those that are block-based, file-based, or object-based may require bandwidth-intensive access to storage devices using communications protocols and subsystems. Additionally, robust and efficient networking implementations may be required for high-traffic network security systems such as firewalls with intrusion detection and prevention mechanisms. Similarly, Layer 4-7 networking systems, including by way of example: server load balancers, web switches, SSL accelerators, web servers, traffic managers, and networking gateways are often associated with high bandwidth traffic and it may be desirable to provide mechanisms for acceleration of these systems to improve performance.
The aforementioned systems and software generally communicate using networking protocols such as TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol over Internet Protocol) and can benefit from performance improvements accomplished by accelerating the execution of the underlying network protocol. Furthermore, performance enhancements in other communications protocols coupled with TCP/IP, including for example the Internet Small Computer Systems Interface (iSCSI) network storage protocol, are desirable when implementing systems and applications designed for high speed data throughput.
Network storage protocols represent a relatively new advancement for accessing data over storage networks and form the basis for diverse classes of network storage solutions wherein data is remotely stored and distributed within both storage area networks (SANs) and across larger public networks, including the Internet. The iSCSI transport protocol standard defines one such approach for accessing and transporting data over commonly utilized communications networks. Using the iSCSI command and instruction set, conventional Small Computer Systems Interface (SCSI) commands, typically associated with communication within locally maintained storage devices, may be encapsulated in a network-compatible protocol wrapper allowing SCSI communication between devices in a remote manner. The iSCSI protocol may further be used by a host computer system or device to perform block data input/output (I/O) operations with any of a variety of peripheral target devices. Examples of target devices may include data storage devices such as disk, tape, and optical storage devices, as well as, printers, scanners, and other devices that may be networked to one another to exchange information.
In conventional environments, block data operations associated with the iSCSI protocol are structured so as to be compatible with the general manner of processing associated with existing storage devices. As with the standard SCSI protocol, iSCSI information exchange is based on communication between agents (e.g. client/server model). An iSCSI-compliant device that requests a connection to the storage device and issues an initial series of SCSI commands is referred to as the iSCSI initiator. An iSCSI-compliant device that completes the connection to the initiator and receives the initial SCSI commands is referred to as the iSCSI target. One function of the initiator is to generate SCSI commands (e.g. data storage and access requests) that are passed through an iSCSI conversion layer where the SCSI commands are encapsulated as iSCSI protocol data units (PDUs). Thereafter, the iSCSI PDUs may be sent across a network to the target device where the underlying SCSI instructions and data are extracted and processed. In a similar manner, the target device may transmit data and information prepared using the SCSI responses and encapsulated as iSCSI PDUs to be returned to the initiator.
Running over layers of the TCP/IP protocol suite, iSCSI communication in the aforementioned manner is a computationally intensive process. The principal components of this process can be subdivided into: header processing, protocol processing, and data movement. Header processing includes parsing of packet headers at various layers of the protocol, extracting relevant information from headers, updating information as needed, performing tasks implied by the contents of the headers, creating headers for outgoing packets, and other related tasks. Protocol processing may include generating messages as specified by the protocol and maintaining/updating the protocol state at each agent (e.g. initiator/target) involved. Additional protocol processing steps may include performing connection setups and teardowns, generating Acknowledgements with protocol-dependent parameters, maintaining window sizes for each connection, performing retransmissions as required, and maintaining timers. Data movement refers to storing and retrieving data, typically from a network interface to a memory device or vice versa.
When executed in a principally software implementation, it may take on average approximately one million cycles on a commercially available general purpose processor to perform all the necessary computations and data movements for 1 million bits of data received and transmitted over a network interface. Thus, to achieve a data rate of 10 Gigabits/sec over a conventional network interface, a 10 GHz processor would be theoretically necessary under software-based network protocol resolution techniques. Presently, processors of this speed are not available and even if available, would not be economical and efficient to use for this purpose. Thus, there exists a need to enhance and accelerate the processing of communication protocols such as TCP/IP and iSCSI to overcome the limitations of conventional software-based network protocol resolution methods.